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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The ABC of Winter 
Foods 



By C. HOUSTON GOUDISS 

Food Advisor of The People's Home Journal; Author of 

"Foods that Will Win the War" and "Making 

the Most of Our Meat Supply"; Food 

Economist of national 

reputation. 



£* 



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PRIVATELY PRINTED BY 

THE PEOPLE'S HOME JOURNAL 

NEW YORK 



COPYRIGHT, 1921 

F. M. LUPTON, PUBLISHER 

NEW YORK 



MM 14 IS22 
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T 

_X HIS friendly fact-talk on the food value of 
canned goods is prompted by a letter from a woman 
in far-away Alaska. 

"How can I give my family the food variety they 
crave and need for health?" she writes. "We are 
almost entirely dependent on canned goods, and 
much of what is available here is hardly worth eat- 
ing. I envy the women in towns and cities who have 
good markets. I wonder if they appreciate their 
good fortune. My immediate problem is how to 
make up for this lack of fruits and vegetables. What 
am I to do?" 

This call for help may serve as a key to unlock the 
door to information in one of the most important of 
all food fields — information needed by housewives 
everywhere. 

The first thing I want to say to the woman in 
Alaska is that the average city woman of today de- 
pends largely on canned goods for winter menus. 
Even when fresh vegetables can be had, they are 
very often so high in price that many housekeepers 
cannot afford them every day. If you will take the 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 

trouble to make the comparison you will find that 
good grades of canned food are much less expensive 
than fresh foods in winter, especially if you are dis- 
tant from large markets. 

I say "good grades." Here is the secret of the 
whole matter. In canned goods as in everything 
else we find the good, medium and poor. The latter 
are not worth buying. The medium may serve a 
purpose, but the wise woman is willing to pay a few 
cents more for standard brands, and from these select 
the best in different lines. One packer puts out 
excellent peas, another fine pineapples, another 
splendid tomatoes. 

Just as the goodness of what you buy in fresh 
fruits and vegetables depends on careful selection, 
the goodness of canned goods depends on the brand 
you choose. 

The Best is Usually Cheapest 

First of all, buy high-grade products. This gives 
you a guarantee of quality and uniformity in every 
can. Then note the weight, which in many instances 
evens up the cost, making the higher priced goods as 
cheap as the lower priced. 

If your source of supply is the local grocery and 
the proprietor is not particular about the brands he 
carries, write me, care of The People's Home 
Journal, and I will gladly send you the names of 
good brands. 

If no grocer is conveniently near or if the one 

4 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 

close at hand seems disinclined to put in the better 
lines, get a catalogue from your nearest wholesale 
grocer or jobber or write direct to the canners, ask- 
ing the address of their nearest distributor. 

Having found your favorite brand of peas, corn, 
tomatoes, peaches, plums, cherries or other fruits, 
vegetables or canned meats, buy by the case — not 
blindly, without making out a budget based on your 
probable needs for the season, but with the same care 
and foresight as that with which a manufacturer 
orders in advance stores of raw material. 

First count noses in your family. Second, take 
into consideration the tastes and food needs of those 
, who sit daily at your table. With these facts for a 
foundation, figure how many cans of each fruit and 
vegetable you will use in an average week. Multiply 
this by the number of weeks of winter in your sec- 
tion, and you will know your food needs in these 
lines and be able to buy sensibly and economically. 
Usually you can get a better price when you buy 
canned goods by the case, sometimes as much as 
three cents per can, which on a case would amount 
to $1.44. No need to fear an oversupply. Canned 
foods keep well in a cool dry place. 

Buy on a Budget 

I know the homes in which the food problem is 
most successfully and easily handled are those in 
which this system is regularly carried out. In such 
homes you will find the canned food needs largely 
stored away in pantry or cellar before the first snow. 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 

This plan is wise. No last-minute rushes to get 
a can of this or that, only to find the grocer is out 
of your favorite brand. No need to change your 
menu on the spur of the moment because he hasn't 
the fruit or vegetable you had planned to have. In 
addition to these advantages you can count abso- 
lutely on the goodness of what you are to serve, and 
know you are saving money the while. 

These are some of the reasons why I urge home- 
makers everywhere to estimate their canned food 
needs in the early fall and lay . in the required 
amounts of brands they have found best fitted to 
their tastes. If women everywhere adopted this plan 
and insisted on the better brands, the poor ones soon 
would be driven off the market. 

These latter find a sale now only because some 
folk never take the trouble to look at a label. They 
don't know whether a can contains one pound two 
ounces, or one pound six ounces — yet if the first can 
be bought for twenty cents while the second costs 
twenty-two, they choose the first as "cheaper." 
Really, it is more expensive. 

Know Your Brands 

Again there are housekeepers who, having bought 
a can of particularly good pineapple, for instance, 
pay no attention to the brand or name of the packer 
on the label, and wonder why the next can they buy 
is not equally delicious. They foolishly assume that 
all canned pineapple is alike. They would not want 
anyone to think they regard all apples or potatoes 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 

as alike, yet their attitude toward canned goods is 
tantamount to this. 

Now for a few straight-spoken words as to the 
use of canned goods in the home. 

In the first place — and I speak from the stand- 
point of food that is best to eat and best for us — 
the average housewife does not use as many good 
canned foods as she should. In the average Ameri- 
can home we make too little use of the better grade 
of such fruits, vegetables and meats. 

The first reason for this statement is the absolute 
cleanliness of canned foods bearing the name or 
brand of a reputable firm. Could you see, as I have, 
how carefully the material which goes into these cans 
is selected and prepared, and if you knew how much 
time, thought and money is spent to secure the high- 
est degree of scientific sanitation, not only as to ma- 
chinery and utensils, but also in the matter of sur- 
roundings and helpers, you would understand why 
it is absolutely safe to use reliable canned goods. 

In many instances the fruits and vegetables are 
grown to order, the canners even superintending 
selection of the seeds. In the matter of meats, high- 
grade packers pay enormous salaries to experts 
whose first duty is to make sure that only the choic- 
est material is selected. And in the best canneries 
constant sanitary supervision is exercised. Canned 
meats must be passed by government inspectors, 
and while the same system does not yet extend to 
fruit and vegetable canneries, the name of a reliable 

7 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 



firm or a can insures a high standard and uniform 
quality. 

Five years ago the government made a careful 
estimate of the total number of cans of food put up 
in one season in this country, and the total was 
3,500,000,000! Since then this has been greatly in- 
creased, for each year more persons are learning the 
goodness, convenience and economy of the can in 
the cupboard. The enormous growth of the industry 
alone should remove all unwarranted prejudice 
against canned foods. 

Is Canned Food Healthful? 

The housewife's first consideration is clean, pure 
food, and in this she is absolutely right, because it is 
the basis of health. After this she is concerned with 
the nutritional value of what she buys. Her menus 
must be not only palatable and healthful, but pro- 
ductive of heat and energy for the body machine; 
not only safe but strength-making. 

How do canned foods measure up in this regard ? 

One of the highest of scientific authorities — Dr. 
Milton Rosenau, of Harvard — has gone carefully 
into this subject, and after countless tests, he gave 
out the following statement : 

"Canned foods are sterile foods and therefore generally 
safer than fresh foods. * * * Canned goods are not only 
safe, but are quite as nutritious as the original articles. It 
is becoming convincingly clear to us that there is no such 
a thing as ptomaine poisoning and that canned goods have 
a clean bill of health. They are, in fact, the safest foods 
that come to our table." 

8 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 

Dr. Rosenau's conclusion in this matter repre- 
sents the final word of authority. His position is 
supported by Dr. James Weinzirl of the University 
of Washington, who made a detailed scientific ex- 
amination of more than 1,000 cans of fruit, vege- 
tables, meat, fish, milk and other foodstuffs in his 
laboratory, and found none of them to be in any 
way unsafe ; that the germ of botulism, a dangerous 
food poison sometimes attributed to canned foods, 
was not present in a single can. 

Another scientific authority, E. V. McCollum, 
Professor of Chemical Hygiene of Johns Hopkins 
University, states: 

"Canned meats are probably safer in general than beef 
or fowl left over from a former repast and served when 
several days old as cold meat, or in the form of sandwiches. 
They are certainly much safer than sausages or Hamburg 
steaks or than lobster. The latter spoils so readily that 
it is customary to market them alive, to be killed at the 
time their preparation for the table is begun. Canned lob- 
ster is probably as safe as other canned meats, and the 
same may be said of other sea foods." 

There are common-sense considerations, however, 
which would weigh with any housewife if science 
never had set its seal on canned goods. 

For instance, fruits and vegetables for canning 
are ripened on vine, bush or tree to exactly the 
proper point for human consumption. As everyone 
knows, the full food value of anything is obtainable 
only when in such condition. 
Like a Year-Round Garden 

The only way to approximate the actual food 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 

value of canned fruits and vegetables would be to 
have access the year round to fresh fruits and vege- 
tables matured to exactly the right point and 
brought direct from tree, vine or bush into your 
own kitchen. 

And canned foods are most economical, because 
they can be kept indefinitely and contain no waste. 
Their great value lies in the variety of food elements 
they supply at all seasons. 

The human body is like the house in which you 
live. It must have one sort of food-furnishing for 
this room and another sort for that; one food ele- 
ment to fit certain needs and others to fit other needs. 
These absolutely necessary substances abide in dif- 
fering quantities in fruits, vegetables, meats, milk 
and fish. To provide them in sufficient measure the 
diet must be varied — and it is even more necessary 
this should be done in winter than in summer. For 
in winter the average person does not have the help 
of outdoor exercise. Here it is canned goods have 
come to the rescue of the human family, virtually 
saying, "It always is summer where we are." 

We can feel assured that when we make full use 
of the best canned goods we endow ourselves, even 
in the coldest of winter weather, with the food ad- 
vantages and health helps Nature so bountifully 
stores in summer gardens. Thus the high present 
development of the canned food industry has equal- 
ized the year's food opportunities in such a way as 
to make summer and winter practically one food 

10 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 



season, not only in the great cities but in the remot- 
est sections of our country. 

Already this new order is being reflected in the 
health of the people. And when every American 
housewife knows it is the part of good sense as well 
as economy and good health to lay in a supply of 
dependable canned goods in the autumn, we shall 
have taken a long step forward in the direction of 
national physical fitness. 



11 



RECIPES 



Peach Meringue Tarts 

Bake six tart shells in the usual way. Then drain one can of large 
peaches and place one piece, round side up, in each tart shell. Beat 
the whites of two eggs until stiff, add six tablespoonfuls of powdered 
sugar gradually and beat until thick and smooth. Heap this meringue 
on each tart, sprinkle with one-third cupful of chopped nuts and bake 
in a cool oven until just beginning to brown. Chill before serving. 

Squash Custards 

Mix two cupfuls of canned squash with one-half cupful of light 
brown sugar, one-half teaspoonful of cinnamon, one-fourth teaspoon- 
ful of nutmeg and one teaspoonful of salt. Beat two eggs, and two 
cupfuls of milk and stir in the squash mixture. Pour into buttered 
custard cups and bake in a moderate oven until firm. Beat the white 
of one egg until stiff, fold in three tablespoonfuls of sugar and beat 
until smooth. Remove custards from the oven, place a spoonful of 
meringue on each and serve warm or cold. 

Italian Salad 

In a bowl which has been rubbed with clove of garlic, mix together 
carefully two cupfuls of shredded cabbage, one-half cupful of sliced 
carrots, one green pepper shredded, and one cupful of canned kidney 
beans. Beat together one-half cupful of olive oil, three tablespoonfuls 
of cider vinegar and one tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar and salt 
and pepper to season. When thick, pour over the vegetables. Add one 
cupful of canned tongue, mix and let stand for thirty minutes. Ar- 
range in a mound on a bed of lettuce and surround with one can of 
sardines, split in half and free from skin and bone. 

Scalloped Corn and Potatoes 

Parboil four cupfuls of thinly sliced raw potatoes for eight minutes 
and drain. Put alternate layers of potatoes and two cupfuls of corn 
in the bottom of a greased baking dish, sprinkle each with two tea- 
spoonfuls of salt, one-eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper, and two 
tablespoonfuls of flour and dot with three tablespoonfuls of butter. 
Pour one-half cupful of milk over the top and bake in a moderate 
oven about forty-five minutes or until the potatoes are soft. 

Tuna Fish Supreme 

Make a sauce of four tablespoonfuls of butter, four tablespoonfuls 
of flour and two cupfuls of milk. When thick and boiling, stir in 

12 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 

one-third of a cupful of evaporated milk and one teaspoonful of lemon 
juice. Drain one small can of mushrooms and break in pieces. Sepa- 
rate a one-pound can of tuna fish into flakes or, if very firm, cut in 
cubes. Stir the fish, mushrooms and one pimento cut in strips into the 
sauce and cook in a double boiler for ten minutes or until thoroughly- 
hot. Stir as little as possible to avoid mashing the fish. Shape three 
cupfuls of boiled rice into cones and stand in a circle on a hot platter. 
Surround with the fish mixture. Place a mushroom or a piece of 
pimento on top of each cone of rice. Serve very hot. 

Meat Loaf from Canned Beef 

Mix together thoroughly the following: One pound can of roast 
beef, chopped fine, one teaspoonful of salt, one-eighth of a teaspoonful 
of pepper, one teaspoonful of minced onion, one tablespoonful of 
catsup, one cupful of bread crumbs, not too stale, th^ee tablespoon fuls 
of melted butter, one-half cupful of stock or hot water and one egg. 
Add more salt if necessary. Shape into a loaf or pack into a greased 
bread pan. Bake in a moderate oven about thirty minutes or until 
brown on top and firm to the touch. 

Asparagus Shortcake 

Drain a large can of asparagus and let stand in an uncovered 
dish for thirty minutes. Mix and sift two cupfuls of flour, one-half 
teaspoonful of salt and four teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Rub in 
four tablespoonfuls of fat and mix to a soft dought with one beaten 
egg and about one-half cupful of milk or water. Turn out on a 
floured board and roll to one-half inch thickness. Cut in pieces about 
two inches wide by three inches long and bake on a greased pan 
in a hot oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. 

Heat the asparagus in a steamer or colander placed over hot 
water. Make two cupfuls of well seasoned white sauce and flavor it 
with one tablespoonful of lemon juice. When the shortcake is done, 
split each piece, place six or eight stalks of asparagus between and 
pour white sauce over all. Serve very hot. 

Salmon Salad 

Open one pound can of salmon, remove skin and bones and sepa- 
rate fish into flakes. Season to taste with salt, pepper, paprika and 
one tablespoonful of lemon juice. Add one cupful of cold boiled 
rice or spaghetti and arrange in a mound on lettuce. Cut two hard- 
boiled eggs in slices and arrange around the base of the mound. 
One-half cupful of left-over canned peas, string beans or asparagus 
may be used for extra garnish. Cover the top of the mound with 
mayonnaise and sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and whole 
capers. Serve very cold. 

13 



THE A B C OF WINTER FOODS 
Celery a la Creole 

Drain one can of celery and let stand in an uncovered dish for 
about thirty minutes. Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter; add one 
onion cut very fine and two tablespoonfuls of chopped green pepper. 
Cook slowly for five minutes, then add one cup strained canned 
tomato and one-half cupful of boiling water. Season to taste with 
salt and pepper, add the celery and pour into a casserole or 
covered baking dish. Cover and cook in a moderate oven about 
forty minutes. If necessary thicken the sauce with a little flour 
before serving. 

Squash Custards 

Two cupfuls of canned squash; one-half cupful of light brown 
sugar; one-half teaspoonful of cinnamon; one-quarter teaspoonful of 
nutmeg; one teaspoonful of salt; two eggs; two cupfuls of milk; 
one egg white; three tablespoonfuls of sugar. 

Mix the squash with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Beat 
eggs, add milk and stir in the squash mixture. Pour into buttered 
custard cups and bake in a moderate oven until firm. Beat egg white 
until stiff, fold in the sugar and beat until smooth. Remove custards 
from the oven, place a spoonful of meringue on each and serve 
warm or cold. 

Italian Salad 

One can of sardines, freed from skin and bones; one cupful of 
canned tongue, cut in cubes; two cupfuls of shredded cabbage; one- 
half cupful of sliced raw carrots; one green pepper shredded; one 
cupful of canned kidney beans; one-half cupful of olive oil; one 
tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar; three tablespoonfuls of cider vin- 
egar; clove of garlic; salt and pepper to season. 

Mix the vegetables together carefully in a bowl rubbed with the 
clove of garlic. Beat the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper together until 
thick and pour over the vegetables. Add the tongue, mix and let 
stand for thirty minutes. Arrange in a mound on a bed of lettuce 
and surround with the sardines, split in half and freed from skin 
and bone. , 



14 



